Bulgarian Catholic Church
Basic data | ||
Jurisdiction status | sui iuris | |
rite | Byzantine rite | |
Liturgical language | Bulgarian , Church Slavonic | |
Establishment date | 1851 | |
Seat | Eparchy of St. John XXIII. in Sofia | |
Hierarch | Christo Proikov | |
statistics | ||
Jurisdictions | 1 | |
Believers | 10,000 | |
Bishops | 1 | |
Parishes | 20th | |
Diocesan priest | 4th | |
Religious priest | 16 | |
Permanent deacons | 0 | |
Friars | 20th | |
Religious sisters | 38 | |
Stand 2013 |
The Bulgarian Catholic Church is a religious community united with the Roman Catholic Church , which recognizes the Pope as its spiritual leader.
Due to the difficulties in establishing a Bulgarian church hierarchy within the Ottoman Empire that was independent of the Greek ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople, part of the Bulgarian Orthodoxy was united with Rome in the 19th century . For this purpose, a delegation traveled to Rome, where Pope Pius IX. the leader of the 60,000 Bulgarian Catholics of the Byzantine Rite, Josif Sokolski , ordained bishop on April 8, 1861 and given the title of Vicar Apostolic , his bishopric was in Constantinople .
Immediately after his return to Constantinople in June 1861, the new bishop disappeared under mysterious circumstances and spent the remaining 18 years of his life in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra . Efforts to get them back into the Orthodox camp soon began, which was largely achieved when an independent Bulgarian Orthodox hierarchy was restored in 1870. Most of the believers in the Bulgarian Catholic Church returned to this Bulgarian Orthodox Church . Mainly the areas of Thrace and Macedonia remained in the Union , for which an independent Apostolic Vicariate was established in Thessaloniki (Macedonia) and Adrianople (Thrace) in 1883 . A Vicar Apostolic with the title of Archbishop remained in Constantinople .
Only a few believers of the Church survived the Balkan War from 1912 to 1913, who now also escaped to the new Kingdom of Bulgaria . In 1926 the Bulgarian Catholic Church was reorganized. The two vicariates of Thessaloniki and Adrianople were abolished and replaced by a new Apostolic Exarchate in Sofia .
During the communist era , the Bulgarian Catholic Church faced numerous persecutions. The Exarch was mysteriously killed in 1951 and many priests were imprisoned.
Today the church, which has only one exarchate in Sofia, has around 10,000 believers and celebrates its liturgy in Church Slavonic . The Exarch of Sofia has been a member of the Bulgarian Bishops' Conference since 2002 .
On October 11, 2019, the Apostolic Exarchate of Sofia was elevated to the status of an eparchy and in Eparchy St. John XXIII. renamed Sofia .
Bishops of the Bulgarian Catholic Church
Apostolic Vicariate Constantinople, Church leadership 1861–1926
- Josif Sokolski (1861)
- Petur Arabazhinski (1862–1863)
- Raphail Popow (1865-1875)
- Nil Isworow (1883-1896)
Vicariate Apostolic for Macedonia, Thessaloniki, 1883–1926
- Lasar Mladenow (1883-1894)
Vicariate Apostolic for Thrace, Adrianople, 1883–1926
- Mikhail Petkov (1883–1921)
Apostolic Exarchate Sofia, established in 1926
- Kyrill Kurtew (1926–1942)
- Ivan Dimitrov Garufalov CR (1942–1951)
- Kyrill Kurtew (1951–1971)
- Metodi Stratiew AA (1971–1995)
- Christo Projkow (since 1995)
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ The Eastern Catholic Churches 2013. Catholic Near East Welfare Association, accessed February 9, 2015 .
- ^ Charles A. Frazee: Catholics and Sultans. The church and the Ottoman Empire 1453-1923. Cambridge University Press, London 1983, ISBN 0-521-24676-8 , pp. 244-247.
literature
- Charles Fabrègues: Le vicariat apostolique bulgare de Thrace. In: Echos d'Orient 6 (1903), pp. 35-40. 80–85 full text ; Full text .
- Crescent Armanet: Le mouvement des Bulgares vers Rome en 1860. In: Echos d'Orient 12 (1909), pp. 355–362 full text ; 13 (1910), pp. 101-110 full text .
- Ivan Sofranov: Histoire du mouvement bulgare vers l'église catholique au XIX siècle. Première période: les origines 1855-1865. Desclée, Rome a. a. 1960.
- Giorgio Eldarov: The Union of Bulgarians with Rome. For the centenary commemoration (1860-1960). In: Ostkirchliche Studien 10, 1961, pp. 3–27.
Web links
- Official website (Bulgarian and English [without content])
- History of the Bulgarian Catholic Church (Bulgarian)
- Entry on Bulgarian Catholic Church on catholic-hierarchy.org
- Entry on Bulgarian Catholic Church on gcatholic.org (English)
- History of the Bulgarian Catholic Church , online edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia , Vol. 3, New York 1908 (English)
- Small representation of the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church